Monday, March 5, 2012

Pat Robertson Blames Liberals for Drug War and Overincarceration

Pat Robertson created a firestorm when he first called for the decriminalization of marijuana in December 2010, causing even his Christian Broadcasting Network's own publicist to deny that that's what he actually meant.

Well, in a March 1 segment of "The 700 Club" that went largely unnoticed, Dr. Robertson is at it again, reiterating his call for marijuana reform and even blaming liberals for the U.S.'s overincarceration problem.

We here in America make up 5% of the world's population, but we make up 25% of jailed prisoners...

Every time the liberals pass a bill -- I don't care what it involves -- they stick criminal sanctions on it. They don't feel there is any way people are going to keep a law unless they can put them in jail.

I became sort of a hero of the hippie culture, I guess, when I said I think we ought to decriminalize the possession of marijuana.

I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance. The whole thing is crazy.

Check out Robertson's comments in this video, starting at about 20:40 and going until about 29:25. Robertson's comments begin as part of an introduction to a news story about how the NAACP and tea party activists are teaming up to push for criminal justice reform.

After the news story, Robertson's continues his tirade against overincarceration.

Think of California. California is spending more money on prisons than it spends on schools. There's something wrong about that equation.

We need to scrub the federal code and the state codes and take away these criminal penalties.

Putting people in jail at huge expense to the population is insanity.

Folks, we've gotta do something about this. We've just got to change the laws. We cannot allow this to continue. It is sapping our vitality. Think of this great land of freedom. We have the highest rate of incarceration of any nation on the face of the Earth. That's a shocking statistic.

What is it we're doing that is different? What we're doing is turning a bunch of liberals loose writing laws -- there's this punitive spirit, the always want to punish people.

It's time for change!

More and more prisons, more and more crime. It's just shocking, especially this business about drug offenses. It's time we stop locking up people for possession of marijuana. We just can't do it anymore...You don't lock 'em up for booze unless they kill somebody on the highway.

Will Robertson's comments lead to more conservative politicians and elected officials speaking out for drug policy reform? Will they create room for progressives and Democrats who are sympathetic but are worried about being attacked from the right? What do you think?

10 comments:

I hope it will finally begin to pave the path to letting 200,000 YOUTH out of penitentiary's for being happy, hungry, and sleepy. THC is quite possibly one of the most benign of intoxicating substances; compared to the shocking abuse and misuse of ethanol (booz) at least. That is not to mention pharmaceuticals, which are now estimated to produce more deaths in the USA than heart disease and car accidents

Lord Ashtonicus benign would be a GREAT WORD at best to describe CANNABIS/THC to the many other intoxicating substances if it was toxic.Cannabis is non toxic as well as having a medicinal purpose for the body with ZERO DEATHS and ZERO OVER DOSES FACT. PROFESSOR BLUNTSTON

I'm glad the Reverend is coming around on this issue. A great deal of political support for the WOD is provided by religious adherents that think drug use immoral and criminal. In order to change that belief, many more prominent church leaders like Rev. Robertson will need to speak out and educate their congregants about the problems with our drug laws.

I am one of those who does not install Flash on my computer for security reasons. I tried loading this on an older computer that does have Flash and it hung on a frame but played the audio and the slider didn’t move.

To download this as a podcast (mpeg4) use this link:http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-700-club-march-1-2012/id259636832?i=111052846